South France - how to divide days between 4 towns?

Hi everyone,

My friend and I would like some advice on how to divide our time between Carcassonne, Avignon, Arles and Aix-en-Provence. We will probably only have 6-7 days for this part of the trip in total.

1. We will be arriving in Carcassonne from Barcelona by train in early August. According to raileurope.com we should be arriving in C. around midday so we will have that afteroon to explore the town. Should we also leave some time for it the following morning?

2. From Carcassone, which of the 3 places should we head to next?

3. We are thinking of maybe spending 1 day in Avignon, 2 in Arles (based on what I%26#39;ve read on this website) - does that sound okay?

3. We have no idea how many days we should leave for Aix so any help with that would be great!

4. Our next stop will be Lyon, so which of these places is best to depart from?

Any help will be much appreciated.

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I%26#39;ve never been to Carcassonne, so I%26#39;ll leave the first question for someone more experienced than moi.

2. Geographically speaking, your most logical destination after Carcassonne should be Avignon. However, you could %26#39;pass%26#39; Avignon

FYI: Rail Europe has a great flash map of rail lines in France:

…raileurope.com/map_europe/france.html

3. You could spend 1 day in Avignon and 2 in Arles...or the reverse. Stay longer in the one you like most.

3 again: 2-3 days in Aix-en-Provence is fine. It%26#39;s a lovely, leisurely town. Relax.

4. Depart for Lyon after visiting Aix. Avignon would work as well, though. Aix-Lyon = 2h10; Avignon-Lyon = 1h34

Keep in mind that both Aix and Avignon have two train stations each: one for TGVs (AVIGNON TGV; AIX EN PROVENCE TGV) and one for local trains (AVIGNON CENTRE; AIX EN PROVENCE (CENTRE)). The TGV stations are outside town, but shuttles link them to their respective cities.

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Thank you so much for all that info!

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